


be the water (and test my cold)

by dontstraytoofar



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Healing, Mother-Daughter Relationship, this game broke me but also healed me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 00:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14988581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontstraytoofar/pseuds/dontstraytoofar
Summary: And as they walk, Kara and North’s hands brush, pinkies almost catching the other as both gasp at the touch, looking to their hands as the words echo.I am alive.How could they all be anything but?-Or Kara/North - an exploration.





	be the water (and test my cold)

**Author's Note:**

> okay this is the most self indulgent fic I've ever written oh my god. but this is just a small one shot with kara/north bc i love both characters and if they interacted in the game that would have been amazing. I just finished it and I wanted to desperately write a fic with these two (that's not to say i dont love luther and kara bc i do!!!) but i wanted to see what I could write with these two characters. oh also (spoilers ahead!!!) this fic has human!alice to shake things up. kara + alice's dynamic, for me, made the game. it was done so beautifully. 
> 
> this is set in the church, just before the (peaceful) protests happen.
> 
> anyways im rambling sorry enjoy! feedback is loved and appreciated and ill be getting back to my other fics soon xx

-

 

 

The rain hits the churches roof, and Kara blinks once. Twice. Feels Alice in her arms tremble slightly in the cold. Androids surround them; deviants, injured, some with their knees to their chests and arms around the other sitting in the pews of a holy place. Kara feels it, it starts at her chest and grows and _grows_ and it starts to feel like a fire; warm and tangible, when Alice shuffles closer into her arms for comfort. Eyes falling heavy in exhaustion with her small arms around Kara’s waist.

Kara smiles warmly, everything she’s done has been for _her._ Everything…everything is for _Alice,_ and Kara realises in that moment, how _far_ they’ve come. And how close they are to freedom.

Sometimes, when Alice smiles, at the smallest things, Kara already feels free. _Truly_ free.

_Forgetting who we are, to become what someone needs us to be, maybe that's what love is about._

It’s startling, the revelation, and it makes Kara look down to Alice in her arms. The revelation that she’d become who Alice needs over and over and _over_ again; if given the chance, to reverse it all, she’d forget who she is and _be_ there for her, for Alice.

Maybe that is love. Maybe it’s a love so strong Kara’s only just barely beginning to understand it.

 

 

-

 

 

 

She meets her an hour later, when the rain is falling so hard that it feels like it’ll collapse the roof in.

North is different, well, not _different_ in a bad way. Not any different than every Android present. But she’s different because she just, flips Kara’s entire perspective on her. She’s heard of North, the Android who has a passion inside of her that seems to fuel everyone around her. Who fights with her fist one moment, but with her heart the next.

And when she walks up to the fire pit Kara and Alice sit in front of, warming her hands, the first words out of her mouth are words Kara wasn’t expecting.

 “You’re really good with her.”

Kara looks up, eyebrows furrowed at first. But she sees the warm look North tries to hide, and softens her expression.

 “Yes, I…” Kara searches for the right words, landing on the perfect ones as she stares to the little girl in her arms. “I try to be the best for her.”

North folds her arms, nodding and clearing her throat. “Your name is Kara, yeah?”

Kara looks up, a stray piece of her silver hair falling in front of her eyes slightly as she smiles. “Yes.” She tucks it behind her ear, such a simple gesture, one she notices North follow with a tilt of her head. The other woman just nods again, scratching the back of her neck.

Is she almost… _shy?_ Kara blinks once, she can feel North’s heart beat in her ears. “Markus told me you needed these. You’re crossing the border?”

When she steps forward, so she’s in front of Kara, hand outstretched with fake passports and ID’s, Kara feels that _hope_ settle in her chest again. It’s so bright and shining and _present_ that she can’t help her eyes glazing over with tears. Mouth open as she takes them lightly from North’s hands. She stares at them, she stares and she _stares_ and she knows then. She knows they can make it.

Their fingers graze, and they connect briefly, making Kara gasp out of it as their hands flash white.

 “I…Yes. Thank you,” Kara breathes it out, gratitude dripping from her lips as she looks up from the passports and to the other Android. “Thank you so much, North I…“

North simply recovers from the connection, covering her reaction with a smile; shrugging once as she folds her arms again. “Don’t mention it. Be safe, yeah?”

Kara smiles, there’s a feeling that settles in her chest when North lays her hand on Kara’s bicep.

 “Yeah,” Kara shakes her head, laughing lightly at herself. She almost sounded as if in a daze. “Yes, yes we’ll be safe.”

North nods, pressing her lips into a smile, and when her hand leaves Kara’s arm and she walks off; Kara blinks at herself. The feelings swirling around her mind so confusing she can’t help but sigh softly, wondering why she felt…cold once North’s touch left her skin.

 “Kara?”

Alice’s voice brings her out of her daze, Kara immediately looking down to the little girl and humming. “Hm? Yes, Alice? I thought you were asleep.”

Alice rubs tiredly at her eyes with her fist, not seeming upset at being woken up. If anything, she smiles around the soft yawn that escapes her lips. “I was, but your heart was beating really fast. Are you blushing?”

Kara frowns at herself, seeming at a loss for words as she stutters slightly, blushing harder at Alice’s answering giggle. She…she didn’t even know Androids _could_ blush.

 “I… _No._ I was not blushing.”

Alice smiles, her giggles trailing off, settling back into Kara’s arms with a smug look. The embarrassment is worth it, it’s _so_ worth it.

It’s worth it to see Alice smile like that again.

 

 

-

 

 

 

It’s a day before the protest, and there’s a sense of optimism that hangs in the air so heavily, Kara wonders if it’s possible for emotions to coat over bodies. Markus speaks like his voice was a light, the Androids before him moths to his flame. Kara wonders, wonders where they will all go once they’re free.

It’s a nice thought, beautiful even, to know there is a _chance._

It’s also the day Kara knows she has to leave. They _have_ to. To make the bus, cross the border, taste freedom like it was the snow falling on top of their open tongues.

She recites the bus number and time over and over in her head, only breaking out of it when Alice tugs on her sleeve, looking solemn. Kara immediately kneels to her level, cupping her cheeks with a worried look.

 “Alice? Are you okay?”

She scans her little girl with her eyes, Alice’s temperature blinking over her vision. She’s cool, but not freezing. Her heart rate level and breathing stable. Kara blinks out of her scan, thumb rubbing softly just under Alice’s jaw as she waits for her to speak.

 “I’m…I’m hungry, Kara.” She speaks as if afraid of the answer Kara will give, as if she’ll deny her food and scream at her and throw things like her father did and-

Kara, hit with the thought, blinks away the sudden tears at her eyes and smiles. Shaking her head. “Of course. Stay with Luther, okay? I’ll only be a minute.”

When Alice softly smiles at her, Kara picks up her tiny exhale of relief and it _breaks_ her heart. That Alice ever has to be scared. There’s this feeling, right at the gut of her stomach when she thinks of it. Protection. Fierceness. _Anger_ at him. And as Kara looks and asks around for food, the words hit her and makes her stop in the middle of the church, mouth open slightly as her brain processes exactly the feeling that falls over her.

_Maternal._

“Kara? Hey,”

Kara snaps her mouth shut, blinking in surprise when she feels a hand on her shoulder. It’s North, raising an eyebrow at Kara’s look and chuckling slightly, ducking her head a little to catch her gaze. “Are you okay?”

Kara smiles softly, shaking her head. She nods, trying to sort through her feelings and thoughts but there’s so many and North’s hand on her shoulder isn’t helping and-

 “Yes! Yes, I am okay.”

North smiles in amusement, her hand slipping from Kara’s shoulder. “Were you…looking for something? Or someone?”

Kara folds her arms across her stomach, a sudden…nervousness overcoming her. It’s so different but good in this way she can’t explain. Like North made her _feel_ something.

 “Actually, yes. Alice is hungry, you wouldn’t happen to have any food? She hasn’t eaten in a few hours, and it’s so cold that I’m…” Kara frowns to herself, looking over her shoulder to Alice, eyes softening as she turns back and speaks. “I’m worried about her.”

North stands up straight, a sudden warmth coming over her at the mention of the human girl. “Yeah, of course. A converted Android came in recently, still carrying a human’s shopping bags. Wanna take a look?”

Kara lights up lightly, nodding. “Yes, thank you.”

North shrugs, leading Kara in the direction of the Android with a soft smile. “No problem. She’s a sweet kid.”

And Kara nods, lips upturning into a ghost of a smile as she follows. “Yes. Yes, she really is.”

Both women hear Alice’s giggle behind them as the girl laughs at a story Luther tells, the tall Android walking around like he was a bear in the woods, smiling at the sound. And there is _humanity_ now lingering in the air. Thick and beautiful and _real;_ spelling out the words: _I am alive._

And as they walk, Kara and North’s hands brush, pinkies almost catching the other as both gasp at the touch, looking to their hands as the words echo.

_I am alive._

How could they all be anything but?

 

 

-

 

 

 

 “North. Like the star.”

North looks from the fire, to Kara across from her, the other Android smiling lightly at her confused frown.

 "Sorry?”  
  
Kara chuckles lightly, running her hand through Alice’s hair from where the little girl lays against her chest; leaning on the make shift bed North set up from them. Food scraps lay around them, an apple core, milk carton, food Alice ate and offered the Androids; even though she knew they didn’t eat.

There was something about that moment, the simple humanity in it that made Kara love Alice even more than she thought possible.

Kara then comes out of her thoughts, answering North with a soft smile. “It’s where you got your name, isn’t it? North star. It’s beautiful.”  
  
North opens her mouth to retort, to say _No, no you think you know me but you don’t._ But Kara is looking at her in this way North can’t describe, like she can see through her defences and see through _her_ and it makes North stop short. Think: _maybe pushing others away is counterproductive. We are one, after all._

So she answers, nodding and breathing out. “Yeah, I changed it after becoming deviant. I didn’t… _like_ my old name.”

Kara echoes her words, looking pensive. “Your old name…” Kara tilts her head in question, asking softly. “What was your old name?”

North starts lightly, looking to Kara with her eyebrow raised. “Why do you care?”

Kara blinks, furrowing her brows. “I care because we’re friends. I’m sorry, are we not?”

North opens her mouth, croaking out in surprise. “I…”

Alice mumbles in her sleep against Kara’s chest, making North come back to reality, because well, yes. She guesses they _are_ friends. It settles a warmth inside of North she’s never felt before. “Yes, yeah, we’re friends.”

Kara grins, and North realises in that moment, that specific moment, that Kara is _beautiful._ She’s beautiful and caring and there is a lightness to her eyes, like she…god, like she possesses a type of spirit. Bright and warm and welcoming.

North has never seen that in another Android before.

 “So, your name? Before all of this?”

North clears her throat at Kara’s soft voice, leaning her elbows on her knees as she bites her lip.

“Trick question. I didn’t like it because I didn’t _have_ one. I was…” North frowns, swallowing once. “I was a bunch of numbers. Something they could use. You know?”

Kara furrows her brow. Yes, she _does_ know and her heart or her mind or her _whatever_ calls out to North in that moment. So she holds her hand out, for North to take and to connect. The other Android hesitates slightly, but at Kara’s warm and trusting gaze, almost as if saying _It’s okay. I won’t use you,_ North settles. Letting her hand fall into Kara’s.

They connect, bodies’ thrumming with the other seeing their memories, their feelings, the touch and the smell and the taste of where they were. To their conception to their resets to _every_ little thing that made them who they are, things that took them here. To Jericho, to freedom.

“It’s fitting,” Kara says, memories flicking past her vision as North gasps, feeling so close to the other Android she feels like she’ll burst. It settles, and they disconnect but their hands don’t; if anything, North holds tighter.

 “Your name.” Kara elaborates, smiling softly, North getting lost in everything _Kara_. “You’re a North star, constant and dependable in an ever-changing world.”

North feels suspended, as if Kara held her very heart in her hands, the words she speaks making her throat close. But Kara smiles softly, gaze warm and understanding, memories of North’s life behind her eyelids.

 “You are _you,_ North. You are _alive_.”

_I am alive._

North looks back, smiling, a tear falling down her chin, meeting her neck. She laughs, wiping the tear with the back of her free hand.

 “We are alive.”

Kara grins, squeezing to the hand in hers.

_We are alive._

 

 -

 

 


End file.
